Local duffer beats odds with two holes-in-one on 'crazy' day at Edmonton Petroleum Club

We’ve had back-to-back groups get holes-in-one at the Edmonton Petroleum Club this year — the second ace authored by an eight-year-old, Austin Hughes.

Then we had two golfers in the same group get holes-in-one back-to-back at Blackhawk.

Now there’s this: Jim McCulley getting two holes-in-one on the same day.

“Crazy,” said McCulley. “Just really, really crazy.”

No kidding. According to the National Hole-in-One Registry, the odds on one player making two aces in the same round are 67 million to 1. Put in perspective the odds of dying from parts falling off an airplane and landing on you are “only” 10 million to 1.

Now, to be fair, those odds are for a regulation 18-hole course. McCulley did it at Rimbey’s Gull Lake golf course, which is a nine-hole par-3 layout. This, of course, lessens the odds. Still …

McCulley said Gull Lake isn’t your typical Par 3 course.

“It’s tremendous,” he said. “The holes play from 130 to 215 yards. The greens are more undulating than any course I’ve played. And they are really fast.

“It’s owned by an Irishman, Eamon McCann and his wife, who both do a lot for junior golf. I’d recommend it to anyone.”

Here’s how it all unfolded:

Playing in the club’s annual 27-hole Irish Cup Open, McCulley’s first ace came on No. 8 — an uphill, 150-yard hole which is protected by a huge sod wall bunker known as “Big Daddy.” That was during the nine-hole medal portion of the tournament.

“I hit an eight-iron, which landed directly in line with the pin and stopped. I figured it was just a little long, but by the time we walked up to the green the ball had disappeared,” said McCulley, the northern Alberta industry representative for Callaway Golf. “I looked into the cup and there it was. The hole slopes from back to front and was into the wind. The only thing that makes sense is that the ball was sitting on the edge of the hole and the wind blew the ball it in.

“Because it didn’t go in immediately it was a little nonchalant,” said McCulley, who plays to a 2.9 handicap and who had two previous holes-in-one.

There was nothing placid about McCulley’s second ace of the day, which, after lunch, came in the 18-hole scramble event.

“The whole golf course probably knew what happened because there was so much screaming and yelling,” McCulley said.

This one came on Gull Lake’s No. 7 — a 132-yarder which is surrounded on the right side as well as on the back by water and was his first hole of the Scramble. Pulling out a gap wedge McCulley’s shot — a slight draw — hit eight feet to the right of the pin, spun sideways and went into the hole as well.

“This one we all watched go in,” said McCulley, who, over the duration of just five holes had made two holes-in-one.

Amazing.

Scene

Sad news from the Edmonton Golf Association: the Sherwood Nissan Edmonton Men’s Amateur has been cancelled due to low registration numbers.

“We only had 34 enter and that’s just not acceptable,” said EGA president Gord Nitz. “We can’t hold a tournament for 34 players.

Nitz said he doesn’t know what the reason is for a lack of participants.

“Something is wrong and I don’t know what to do to get it fixed,” he said of the tournament, which was supposed to be held Aug. 24-26 at Stony Plain, River Ridge and Goose Hummock.

“All the time and effort, all the promotion and advertising we put into it … We had a sponsor in Sherwood Nissan. I just don’t know what is wrong,” Nitz said of the tournament which had 88 entrants last year.

After finally thawing out after covering the cold, wet and windy Alberta Men’s Amateur at Lewis Estates golf course, I had forgotten just how good a course it is.

The same goes for the Highlands. Absolutely mint.

Dispelling another rumour: Kananaskis golf courses — Mount Lorette and Mount Kidd — are not closed. “There are all sorts of rumours going around that we are shut down and that the courses are a disaster. Not true,” saidv Brian Bygrave, director of Kananaskis.

“Like Jasper, we had a brutal spring with a lot of ice damage. And then we had a cold, wet June. We were in bad shape. But not anymore. I can’t say we are perfect, but we are one notch below perfect.

“We had to replace 10 greens and we had areas 100 yards long and wide that looked like somebody had taken Round Up and sprayed all the grass. We suffered a lot of devastation. But we aerated, top-dressed and over-seeded all of them and they are real good again,” said Bygrave.

Noted

Tanner Fermaniuk, who works in the back shop at Royal Mayfair, where he is also a sponsored Intermediate, went to Shadow Mountain, in Cranbrook, B.C., to get his hole in one. And it was a dandy, given that it came on the back tees of No. 4, which measures 248 yards. But that proved to be no problem for Fermaniuk, Grant MacEwan University’s 2010/2011 Male Athlete of the Year, and his three-wood.

Edmonton’s Dianne Thomas went to the Athabasca Golf and Country Club to get her ace. It came on No. 17 from 89 yards with an eight-iron. Witnessing included Pat Long, Bonnie Gallop and Betty Ann Rennie.

A bunch of holes-in-one from Blackhawk: Tom Stevenson from 157 yards on No. 16 with a seven-iron; Janice Lamarre on No. 8 from 120 yards with a nine-iron; Sarah Peters on No. 6; Matt Mackenzie on No. 3 with a big seven-iron from 174 yards; Dick Haldane on No. 16 with a six-iron from 157 yards; Bill Barless from 184 yards on No. 4 with a four-iron and Traci Bateman with a pitching wedge on No. 16 from 104 yards.

Bateman, by the way, also had an eagle on No. 11 and went on to shoot 75.

“She beat me by two and now I have to post the card. I hate it when that happens,” said her husband, Mike.

Finally at Eagle Rock golf course, Lynn Perlette had a hole-in-one during that course’s men’s night. It came on No. 13 with a five-iron from 188 yards. It was witnessed by Sean Hickey.

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Local duffer beats odds with two holes-in-one on 'crazy' day at Edmonton Petroleum Club

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